My second-grade teacher told me that my reading and writing skills would never be good enough for standard classes. Today, I am taking all advanced classes at Enloe High School. I could not have made this leap without my parents, my teachers and the diversity policy, which opened doors of opportunity for me. Without the policy, there would be few honors courses at my schools because there would not be enough students from the surrounding neighborhoods to fill these classes.
As a young African-American woman living in a low-income household, I am not supposed to be in advanced classes, but I am. I am not expected to graduate and go to college, but I will. Attending school with students from a wide range of backgrounds allowed me to see a world beyond my own, where students strive for an A in the top classes instead of just sliding by. Ambition ignites ambition, hard work inspires hard work.
And every year I see that my own persistence and ambition inspire other students in my neighborhood. Please continue to fight for the diversity policy. Those who ended the diversity policy are not just killing policies but killing opportunities and killing ambitions.
